VIDEO: Ethiopia Opens Africa’s First Automated Parking, and It’s Exactly What We Need in Nairobi

The Ethiopian government has opened what is being termed as Africa’s first automated parking in Addis Ababa. This format of using multi-storey buildings to stack cars one on top of the other is picking pace throughout the world.

Complex computer software controls equally complex machines, which lift the vehicle from the drop-off point, and park it at an available slot. This can be as high as 50 floors up.

This new system of parking vehicles has immense advantages compared to the old multi-storey parking where vehicles are driven up via ramps. For instance, every available inch of space is utilized, translating to more parking spaces. In this configuration, a single building of about 30 floors can hold more than 1000 cars.

With too little space in Nairobi CBD, perhaps this system can come in handy.

This particular Ethiopian one was built on a space that normally parks 9 cars. Right now, 90 vehicles comfortably take the space by stacking them up.